Silence of the Lambs

Just finished Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. Have seen the movie and its creepy, that's all I can remember about it. The book is awesome, I couldn't put it down! finished it in 2 days and can't wait to read the other books. The character developments of Clarice and Hannibal are very interesting and even though I knew the main plot from the movie, I was still thoroughly engaged. The book isn't as grotesque as I would have imagined, based on the movie. But Hannibal's creepiness definitely comes out strong.

**update: finished Red Dragon and Hannibal . . all great books. the end of Hannibal isn't very satisfying though. Haven't had nightmares YET.

India Reading List

Some reviews of books I'm reading while here (or else I don't really read much on a regular basis). as of Feb 24, 2010.

The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio (non fiction): awesome book Matt picked out for me from his hometown half-price book store. Started it in Peru and finally finished it in India. Very cool book about the number known as Phi (the Greek symbol), 1.61803 . . . (goes on forever). The author goes into details about history and mythology related to this number, and how it may or may not play into certain pieces of art, architecture etc. It has inspired me to think about taking a "History of Science" tour through Europe. That would be awesome.

Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat (fiction): This is the book that the movie "3 Idiots" is based on. An entertaining, quick read but a bit cliche and high school-ish in my opinion. There's a lot of differences from the movie.

Rabindranath Tagore, The Postmaster & selected stories, translated by William Radice (fiction): the stories are hit or miss, some of my favorites are The Hungry Stones, Skeleton, Guest. Some of the stories have no real plot but recreate the imagery and mood of a village and leave the end of the story with a line like " . . and maybe he was never found again. . " or something like that. I don't know how much this had to do with the translator, but the sarcasm is pretty hilarious and in my opinion some of the social commentary/observations are quite insightful and funny. There lots sensuality and romantic descriptions in most of the stories. And a lot of quotable quotes.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: a great, quick, interesting read. dark humor, the kind I like. A sort of realistic and also warped view of "modern" India dealing with rich vs. poor, from the point of view of a chauffeur/driver.

(ongoing) Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King (fiction): collection of short stories. Some are weird and very creepy so I have to be in the mood for that. The first story in the book is the best so far "Dolan's Cadillac".

(ongoing) Lonely Planet India: obviously.

Bengali head nod

I'm still trying to figure out the Bengali head nod.

Let me provide some cartesian coordinates first: X, Y, Z axes.

Imagine your spine is Z, across the shoulders is X and chest to back is Y. So nodding your head up and down would be in the Z-Y plane (what we Americans do for "yes"), and shaking your head side to side would be moving along the X-Y plane (what we American do for "no").

Now imagine moving your head in the Z-X plane, kind of like a bobble head. Well, I'm familiar with this sort of head nod, but it usually means "yes" or "OK, sure" or other ways of conveying affirmation. But here, I think it means NO!? still trying to figure that out, must do some more research.

wildlife

Killed my first Indian cockroach on this trip today. I thought I'd take an evening bucket bath, bad idea. I tried to drown it and it struggled on its back a bit, then tried to make its way into the bedroom. Hell naw! I made a wad of toilet paper, placed that on it while it was on its back, then dropped a shampoo bottle to squish it. Then took some plastic to pick up the whole mess with. So this is my method of having a way to kill bugs w/o directly touching them or leaving a mess of guts. Pretty ingenious if you ask me.

There's also a lizard that comes and goes in the bathroom, the window is open a crack. I don't mind him/her that much, but it needs to do a better job of eating bugs (do lizards eat cockroaches?).

This was a good reminder to keep my bags and suitcases closed at all times.

I've heard there's snakes on campus, and one was even found in the lab room I use a few weeks ago (before I got here). Ugh. I will freeze with panic if I see a snake. Don't try to reason with me, I'm a pretty rational person, but that's one thing I do not want to see, especially in my room and if I'm by myself.

On that note, I'm going to try and sleep w/o imagining creepy crawlies. A mosquito net would be nice and provide some security at least.

rain

it's raining!! thunder and lightning as well. sounds great from my window and luckily my walk to lab is a couple hundred feet so don't have to worry about getting muddy. hopefully it will cool down the weather a bit for the next few days. and luckily thunder doesn't scare me.

Common sense

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” - Albert Einstein.

I've thought about the concept of "common sense" for a long time. It never made sense to me that we should all have the same/common sense about anything. This quotation is the definition of common sense that I try to remind myself of when it seems that no one else around me is using their "common sense". It really depends on how you grow up, what adults tell you, what experiences you've had, education etc etc.

I interpret "collection of prejudices" as being just another way of saying "things people tell you w/o you experiencing them yourself" therefore making a pre-judgment about something. My common sense tells me not to drink the tap water here, b/c that's what people tell me. I haven't actually tried to drink tap water and then gotten sick and therefore proven to myself that the tap water is not safe for me.

"common courtesy" is something else that isn't so common. I'm realizing that more being immersed in a different culture with its own set of customs and "common courtesy". Please and thank you's don't really exist. Nor does sorry. Hell, even pedestrian right of way doesn't exist. People rarely smile at strangers and although I've heard people say that people in India are friendly or neighborly, they are not any more or less friendly or neighborly than any other population of people that I've come across, only speaking of strangers though. Although it makes me angry to see litter or see someone relieve themselves on the side of the road, in the context of the culture, I guess its acceptable, but I would prefer not to do that.

So I try to think about things in a culturally relativistic way. I've noticed people like to take pride in their cultural values, as if other cultures don't share the same values or as if our own is superior in some way. Some values are shared, some aren't, but there's no point in making a judgement about that. In fact, more can be learned through differences (if learning's your thing). But you already know this about me.

Updates from the past two weeks

The first week around here was pretty boring and slow. The logistics for everything take a while. Turns out I had to open a bank account to get paid. Here's the frustrating story about that:

Someone calls the bank (united bank of india) on campus to ask what I would need to open up an account, copy of passports they say. DONE! I already had those with me (I'm SO prepared right?), so I go to the bank and try to get someone's attention to help me. The manager then says, oh you need a copy of the signature and address pages of your OCI card and passport. OK. I leave the bank to go to the department to make photocopies. Oh, we don't have a copy machine in the department office, nor anywhere else on campus? (there's an atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope etc, but no xerox machine). So I have to leave the campus and take a very short walk to make copies. The next day I go back to the bank smiling to myself for how independent and efficient I am. Here you go sir, my photocopies. Then he hands me a thick stack of forms, ugh, OK, he didn't mention those yesterday. I fill em out, hand em back. Um, miss do you have two color photos to attach to the form? (in hindi). Me: Oh, I asked you yesterday what I needed, you didn't mention anything about photos. My passport photocopy has my picture right there. His response: No, you need small color pictures, I can't process this w/o pictures. WTF? So the rest of my morning was spent walking around the town outside trying to find somewhere to get pictures taken and printed right away so I could turn them in before the bank closes at 330pm. No apologies of course for the miscommunication. And turns out, the paper work takes 72 hrs to process to even open the account. This whole process took 3 days. OK fine. I email my contact in Kanpur who is supposed to transfer the money to my account. He says he'll get on it. 1 week later, no response. I call him, he now tells me I should have opened an account with UNION bank of India (also UBI, but not UNITED bank of INdia). I told him beforehand I was going to open an account in United bank of India, he didn't tell me then to do Union instead. So now, the process takes longer, they can't do direct transfer. Once again, no apology for the confusion, even though there was someone responsible for the confusion. I still don't have my stipend, had to borrow money and a SIM card from the department. I wonder if this would be the same if I was a Professor or someone with more authority, or if the Director's Asst. did it saying the Director needed it done right away. Who knows.

I also found out about Feb 2nd ish that I have the opportunity to go to Hyderabad full expenses paid Feb 8-11 to give some talks on Nanoscience/Nanotechnology at the Engineering Staff College of India. Yes please. Went with a prof who was also hoping to only work for 2 days so we get 2 days to sightsee. The organizers expected us to talk for about 10 hours over 3 days! I was signed up to talk about Carbon nanotubes and nanocomposites, which I have no background in. So once we got there, we talked them down to 2 lectures from me and 3 from the prof. So Feb 8 I gave a talk on microscopy (STM, AFM and KPFM) and got lots of blank stares or people snickering. the audience was mostly scientists and engineerings from defense who need a refresher course or something. Turns out I was talking too fast and they had a hard time understanding my english. The next day I basically talked about my dissertation work and it went alot better. I also got to explore the nightlife of Hbad and see Golkonda Fort, Salar Jung Museum and Charminar. The new parts of the city are pretty awesome, tons of shopping and malls, and a place called "hitec city" where software company offices are. seems pretty happening.

This past weekend, Feb 13, I decided not to go to lab (people here work on saturdays I guess) and went into the city by myself. There's a bus stop right outside the campus gate that goes to an area called Esplanade, and from there I can walk or take taxis around. The main goal is to get across the river on a bus b/c its cheaper, then take a taxi. I left campus around 1230 thinking I'll give myself time to get lost, sightsee and come back before dark. I didn't get lost and love just sitting back while someone else drives me around. I could just sit on the bus and come right back to campus. Walked around Sudder St., Chowringhee area, budget tourist area. Met a hot French-Canadian guy who's been rock climbing around south east asia for the past 6 months. It was nice to see tourists, hear english and see non brown people. Yes I like skin color variety if you didn't already know. Saw part of the Indian Museum, but only for 1 hr so i'll go back again. Got a feel of the city and how to get around. Feb 14 hung out with Reema's Maasi (Reema's mom's youngest sister) Mallika Maasi, and her 3 year old son Nikhil. Maasi is a documentary film maker and film producer! Her husband is a theatre director and actor, whose family are all involved in theatre/acting. I told her I'm up for anything and will tag along anywhere. So, we went to her friend's house Maura and Gautum b/c she had to drop something off. They have opened up a small library in their house for kids from the neighborhood to come to for free! It's so cute. Maura is involved with an alternative school in Kolkata (Shikshamitra) and the name of the library is Mustard Seeds Library (see my facebook). Gautum is a physical chemist, who seems pretty cool as well. They have two cute kids. Maasi, Maura, the kids and I went to City Centre, a nearby mall, the newest mall in Kolkata (area called Salt Lake City, newly developed on the outskirts of OG Kolkata). Had lunch and I did some window/shopping. There was some valentine's day stuff going on, couples dance contest, music etc. It was fun!

Monday was Monday, but a pretty good one at that. Went to the nearby beauty parlour and got an oil and steam head massage. awesome treat, especially since I didn't get any valentines. My hair gets dry around here, and I love when someone plays with my hair. I'll be going once a week at least, its about US $2.00.

I also want to find a cool fashion designer that can help me make clothes that I design. I know that's a stretch, but I'd luv to find a tailor that has experience in fusion clothing. I have some ideas in my head but since I can only sew straight lines for now, I don't plan on trying to sew an outfit.

OK that's its for now, we'll see if I can keep this up. there's so many details and anecdotes I want to remember.

First few days in India

(written in Word on Jan 31, 2010, BESUS)

So here it is, my attempt at what is known as “blogging,” what the ancient civilizations called writing a diary and letting the universe read it, or expounding your thoughts into the internets, pipes, etc etc. Since I’m writing this in word, I’ll have to make sure I don’t read over it before posting it online, since I don’t have wifi in my room; if I do read it before making it “live”, I’m bound to delete it and send it to the digital limbo where everything I delete goes to wait in hiding until it can get its revenge and embarrass me at some later time. So please, kick back while I gather my thoughts from the past week or so as I swat mosquitoes away.

I really don’t think I’m all that good a writing long narratives (or maybe I’m lazy, yes i'm lazy) so maybe I’ll post short snippets of my thoughts as if I was “twittering,” which I think is the trendy thing to do but I’m known to join trends wayyyyy late so I’ll just be a twitter poser for now. Or maybe I’ll think of it as a collection of facebook statuses. And actually these are not in chronological order so I’m just going to write as I remember specific thoughts.

So I wasn’t imagining the “meowing” coming from row 30 in the plane, there really was a cat and not a human baby making cat sounds.

Sunrise at Frankfurt airport at 730am! Weird. US$13.00 for a to-go sandwich and water bottle. Not so weird I guess. Profiteroles at McDonalds?! Awesome.

Highlights of Frankfurt to Kolkatta flight: personal touchscreen tv, 500 days of summer (googly-eyed over Joseph Gorden Levitt, and a cool story), practicing my Spanish with a group of ladies from Spain, one of whom lives in Kolkatta.

Get to Kolkata by 230 am and get pushed into tipping someone I didn’t even ask for help. I mean really, I’m supposed to tip you for you imposing your unwanted services on me? And I thought you were just being nice.

Luckily, as I walk out of the airport I see someone holding a sign with my name on it. Whew. Get to campus and my room at the guest house. My phone doesn’t work so I can’t text the rents that I landed.

Omi Vaidya is pretty much a celebrity around here. I already saw two newspaper articles mentioning him and a tv commercial. It’s fun to tell people that I know him!

Background: I’m part of a newly formed research collaboration between my previous advisor and a professor at the Bengal Engineering and Science University Shibpur (BESUS from now on), Materials Science and Engineering department. They hope to continue it even after I’m done here. Its funded through the INDO-US Forum on Science and Technology for 3 months. I’ll be learning how to use new equipment (SEM, spectroscopy) and also helping them out with their equipment (AFM). At least that’s the plan on paper. The research will not be the same as what I did for my dissertation, its actually completely different in terms of fabrication and characterization but for the purposes of explaining it, its basically nanotechnology related.

I met with the group on Thursday afternoon (yes the same day I landed at 230am), there’s a few PhD students. We plan to meet on Friday and I offer to do a presentation. Luckily, its only about 1/3 of my dissertation defense so I already knew it by heart, so just had to re arrange some ppt slides. I learned about their work and some possibilities for what I can do. I’ll feel a lot better (and less bored) when I have actual goals and dive into the work.

Shibpur is a small town across the river from Kolkatta, and right outside the gated campus (which is pretty small but nice, with ponds and small gardens) there’s a few small shops, eateries etc. Nothing as chaotic as the main city, but a lot more chaotic than the actual campus. I miss my bike, but wouldn’t dare ride it around here. Especially with the stray dogs. The dogs here are pretty calm and I haven’t seen them chase any bicyclists, but it still makes me nervous. I have a pretty basic room with private bathroom in the guest house, and there’s a small dining hall that gives me all 3 meals and gets pretty packed at lunch and dinner.

I called up my mom’s school friend Nandita Auntie on Saturday and she was free so she picked me up for the weekend. It was great to get out of here and finally see the city! And stay at someone’s home. We caught up (it was my first time meeting her), shared pictures and stories about my mom, and she took me shopping to get a phone and an electric kettle for my room (I was equally excited about both!).

As we drove around the city, I was craving living there in the mix of it all, but also not enjoying the smog, pollution and traffic. In that way, the campus I’m at is completely calm (besides that loud music the undergrads were playing on Friday night). I need to find a gym or dance class or something, and I’m not much of a runner/jogger so I don’t see myself running around campus. I should have got some P90X dvd’s! that would be perfect in my room. Next, I’ll call up some of Reema’s family. Eventually I’ll make a trip out to Maharashtra to see my grandfather and mom’s family.

I’ll feel a lot more accomplished once I can get to the city by myself and go exploring by myself. Would love to see some tourists and walk around with my lonely planet as well. The Hindi I learned in 5^th grade when I lived in Maharashtra with my grandparents is coming to great use! I would not feel comfortable only being able to speak English, even though people say you can “get by” with just English. At first, all my Hindi was in the “Spanish” file cabinets in my brain, so I kept saying “si” or “y” . . but now I think I have the file cabinets organized pretty well. I’ll be doing some mental exercises to practice switching between Hindi, Marathi and Spanish and should probably buy some elementary school books to practice the script and gain some vocab.

The one thing that is a bit frustrating is the internet. My mac is having trouble and I’m supposed to get wifi in my room but no one seems to believe me when I say it doesn’t work. I don’t think they understand that I physically need someone on my computer in the guest house to see what the problem is.